Free Watch Anyone?

I had a very proud moment the other day. I was in a tornado warning and I did not break down and start praying to God to spare me like crazy. Seriously-that's my norm. I don't do well in bad weather. Watches of any kind are enough to cause an increase in my blood pressure! (well watches related to potential weather threats at least-I'm not Captain Hook-throw a time telling watch at me and I'll just take it and thank you for the free watch)

This past Friday my area started by being in a tornado watch and I thought to myself "ok....just a watch.....nothing major.....you'll be fine" and then we got the announcement that the Watch is now a Warning. Sirens started going off in my head. Literally. I work at a college and we have very loud sirens that go off in case of severe weather threats or emergencies. I guess now would be a good time to say that on Friday we also had an event where I work so there were more than 900 visitors on campus in addition to the regular students and staff. Even though I felt bad for our visitors, I think they helped me keep calm. I am always much less worried if someone is with me. Even if that person can't do a single thing to help. The responsible and confident side of me kicks in and starts taking over. My thoughts turn from individual doomsday mentality to a proactive 'what can I do to make the situation better' mentality. I could have gone to the lower level of the building I was in with all the visitors right away. Heck-I got the announcement before the sirens started going off so really I could have beat them down there and been the welcoming party. But I didn't. I stayed where I was to go around alerting people where to go and what was happening. Only after everyone was taken care of did I go downstairs. Then I got to spin the situation into a "see how fast and effective we are at taking care of our students when there is any form of threat!?!" kind of message. (work long enough where I work and you can spin anything you want into a positive!)

End of the story is that I am alive. The tornado wasn't even very close to us at all. No damage around where I live which is exactly the way I like it. I also was able to save face in front of my coworkers and a bunch of strangers which is also exactly how I like it. But if I can avoid another tornado warning for a long time, I'd be absolutely ok with it!

Boston

Yesterday my faith in humanity was tested once again. An unknown person/persons set off explosives at the end of the Boston Marathon. It's these moments that make me question how far humanity has fallen. And question why there is such hate in the world. What causes someone to go so far as to take incredibly violent actions against completely innocent people. I highly doubt that the 8 year old who died yesterday had done anything worth the punishment he, and now his family, had to endure.

I try and be positive. I try to see the good in everything. But in situations like this it is so remarkably difficult. The only thing I can think to do is to continue trying to do good and assist wherever I can. I can't guarantee my influence will go very far-but I know that filling myself with hatred toward the individuals at fault isn't going to do anyone any good. Hate just breeds hate.

Patton Oswalt's facebook status yesterday regarding the bombing was so perfect, and much more poetic than I could ever be. It's gone completely viral already, but I want to post it here so that I can continue to look at it if (and sadly probably when) other horrendous activities take place and remind myself that the good do outweigh the evil on this planet.
  

"I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, "Well, I've had it with humanity."

But I was wrong. I don't know what's going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.

But here's what I DO know. If it's one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out... This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will." "-Patton Oswalt

Pack-A-Thon!

Originally I thought this post was going to be all about an amazing organization called Feed the Hunger. My church holds a yearly Pack-a-Thon for them where our goal is to pack 100,000 dry meals for impoverished countries. The food we packed last year (and I believe this year as well) was being sent to Haiti to feed the countless malnourished children there.

It's a fantastic organization that sends food not just to Haiti but also to places including Kenya and Sri Lanka. It's a crazy feeling to know that you've helped make sure that so many people will get a nutritious meal because of you (especially for someone like me who rarely cooks anything at all even in my own home!). And I don't want to take away from the organization. They do amazing things providing food, education, and God's message around the world.

But what really surprised me was how much I laughed during the event. See last year I participated, but just on my own. My friends were doing different shifts than I was so even though I enjoyed it, I was really only focused on not messing up more than anything else. This time however I was working a shift with 5 of my friends. I never thought I would end up crying tears of laughter on more than one occasion in just a few hour shift, but that's exactly what happened. Sometimes people would jump the gun in putting their ingredient into the bag, or randomly (and accidentally) put their ingredient in twice, we of course picked on each other for many various things, and at one point the machine sealing the bags even started sparking-which was cool but not really supposed to happen. Ok, so maybe it was a "you had to be there" kind of time, but I had so much fun I almost started feeling bad because I was there to help impoverished children and not laugh at with my friends right?!?

Then I realized helping others should be fun. Don't they say that laughter is the best medicine for pretty much everything after all? The average adult only laughs 15 times a day! The average child closer to 300!!! I'm pretty sure most people at the Pack-A-Thon probably surpassed the average adult daily laughs. From what I could tell, everyone was having a blast; except maybe the older gentleman that somehow got paired with our group. I couldn't tell if he was amused or annoyed at our antics. There was music constantly, cheering and yelling at all tables, and laughs all around. In fact that was probably the hardest I've laughed in some time, and I have to say that I left feeling better than I have all week!

129 people came out to help for the 2 hour shift I was part of and guess how many meals we packed??? Over 45,000!!! Such a fun way to help people who I'll more than likely never even meet! Because the event just happened I don't have this year's video from my specific church, but this one shows a little more about Feed the Hunger.